10 Jun in  Uncategorized

Difference between PDF and PowerPoint

 

We’ve all had to give a presentation at some point in our career. Some people do it daily! Whether you’re a sales person, a teacher, or a manager, you’re going to need to create and share a presentation in standard format to impart knowledge, make an argument, or simply display your findings in an easy-to-follow way.

When it comes to presentations, most people’s minds immediately go to one format: Microsoft PowerPoint. It’s basically a cliché at this point.

However, PowerPoint isn’t the only game in town for presentations anymore. While PowerPoint is the go-to software to create a presentation, many people in the business world prefer to use a PDF (Portable Document Format) to actually show their presentations.

So what’s the best format for presentations: PDF or PPT?

In order to figure this one out, let’s take a look at the benefits of each file format.

The Benefits of Presenting with a PowerPoint file

Grabbing Attention

With a PowerPoint presentation, you can add all kinds of features to your slides that grab people’s attention: everything from animations to 3D models and morphing techniques. This really makes your presentation come alive and keeps people engaged.

Smooth Transitions

You can customize how your slides transition from one to the next in PowerPoint. You can even get creative and match the type of transition to the presentation’s theme. You can also use transitions to make content appear at different times on the screen, giving depth to your presentation.

Inserting Video

You can add video to a PowerPoint presentation as easily as you can an image, increasing the engagement value of your presentation. You can even loop clips to add a dynamic background flair to your slides.

Greater Control

PowerPoint gives you a lot of control in how you run your presentation. For example, you can save PPT files in ‘show mode’ so they open automatically at slide one – in full screen. You can also use features like ‘Zoom’ to create a non-linear presentation, allowing you to jump to different sections, making your presentation more flexible and dynamic.

Live Editing

Since you made the PowerPoint presentation in the same program that you’re presenting it with (Microsoft PowerPoint) you’ll always have the option of editing slides on the go. If you happen to notice a spelling mistake at the last minute in your formatted text or feel that your audience would benefit from seeing more images or stats, you can easily make your changes live, saving documents on the go.

The Benefits of Presenting with PDF files

PowerPoint isn’t available

This might be a bit obvious, but many people just don’t have PowerPoint, or other presentation programs. It’s a paid service, and some business people just forego it altogether. If you’re having to present on a laptop that doesn’t have PowerPoint installed, chances are that a PDF file (Portable Document Format) will work just fine, as it can be opened by a large number of applications on multiple platforms – it’s known as a multi platform document.

Security

If you have sensitive data in your presentation that needs to be kept private, you can easily encrypt PDF files, making them highly secure. You can also set them to expire after a certain amount of time.

Element preservation

You can get really creative with fonts in PowerPoint, but if the person you’re sharing your presentation with doesn’t have the templates included in Power Point, or the fonts installed on their computer, your presentation won’t look good. PDF files don’t have this issue because they preserve exactly what elements you used when you created them. No matter how you open the file, all the elements will appear as they should.

File size

PowerPoint files are usually a lot larger than PDF files. This isn’t normally an issue, but if you’re running a presentation on an older, slower computer, you might run into trouble. PDF files are lighter and easier to share and run smoothly on any machine.

Now that you know the benefits of either format, you’re probably thinking of different situations in which you’d use one format over the other. That means you’re going to need a way to convert your PowerPoint files into PDF files, and vice versa.

Enter Soda PDF, a powerful PDF document management suite that also provides easy-to-use web based file conversion tools.

Here’s how to convert your PDF files to PPT format using Soda PDF

Go the Soda PDF site.

Select the Online Tools menu link from the home page and go to the “View all tools” section.

Select PDF to PPT from the menu.

Drag and drop the PDF file.

Click download to get your new PPT document when ready and view it in your browser.

Soda PDF File ready

You can then send the PPT as an attachment over email or share it however you like.

Here’s how to convert from PPT file format to PDF using Soda PDF

Go the Soda PDF site.

Select the Online Tools menu from the home page and go to the “View all tools” section.

Select PPT to PDF from the menu.

Soda PPT to PDF

Drag and drop the PowerPoint file.

Click download to get your new PDF file when ready and view it in your browser.

You can then send the PDF attachment over email or share it however you like.

What is Soda PDF?

Soda PDF is a comprehensive PDF management app. It’s designed to solve all your editing, converting needs and more.

And it’s way more than a PDF to PowerPoint converter or PDF editor. It converts PDF files to many other formats, including all Microsoft Office formats, and a lot more.

You can actually use it in 3 different ways, two of which are online:

  • Soda PDF free one-off web-based functions (online converters and more) – works on all platforms (Windows, Mac, etc.)
  • Soda PDF online (full suite) – ideal for Mac users
  • Soda PDF desktop (full suite) – Windows only

What are Soda PDF online tools?

Soda PDF website-based tools are just one-off solutions designed to help people searching for quick and free ways to manage their PDF files. They are limited to processing one file at a time.

Note that with the free solutions on the website, you can only work with a single PowerPoint document (or PDF file) at a time, but there’s also a limit to the size of files you can work with.

These PDF editors are just an easy way to do one-off tasks. You can drag and drop to convert a file, and then save it.

What if I want to do more than just convert PDFs and PPTs?

If you’re looking to do more than just convert, check out Soda PDF’s full online version if you’re on a Mac or PC, or install the Soda PDF desktop software if you’re using Windows.

The Soda PDF full suite comes in two forms: Soda PDF online and desktop versions. These are full-featured programs and can convert multiple files (to and from PPTX files or any other format) at the same time.

These versions require an account registration, but also feature a 7-day free trial. The web-based one-functions are always free and don’t require any sign-up. There are also many templates you can access for free.

Is Soda PDF really free to convert PDF files to PowerPoint?

Note that only the website-based functions like the online converter are – and they don’t require an email.

You’ll only be working with single documents when you use these online conversion functions, such as the PDF file to PPT Presentation converter. There’s also a daily limit for using them. They are designed for people who just need a quick, free and easy way to convert their document or image.

Is it safe to use to convert PDF files?

Absolutely. Soda PDF’s website and free online converter tools are used by millions of people and many companies every month, and they are 100% secure.

We use SSL encryption to ensure that your images and documents and data are not compromised, and remove the files after processing. We take your data’s security seriously.

If you want to work offline, you can always download the desktop version for Windows.

It allows you to do all your work offline, from converting from the PowerPoint format to merging and compressing PDFs, converting to Word, Excel, and more. This way your converted file won’t be on the internet unless you actively share it (such as sending it as an email attachment, for example).

PPT vs PDF files: The Takeaway

The only question you need to ask is: how much control do you have over your presentation you’ve created?

If you are presenting a slideshow you created using your own machine and you’re comfortable with how it runs, go with Microsoft PowerPoint.

But if you’re in unknown territory, where you aren’t sure how you are expected to present, that final pro from the PDF list will come into play. A decently quick flash drive containing a PDF version of your slide deck (more on that below), plugged into someone else’s computer, will eliminate a lot of awkwardness and faffing about. PDF files deliver options that PPT files don’t.

Soda PDF: Converting from one format to the other made easy.

With both PDFs and PowerPoint presentations being so popular, it makes sense that you’ll need to go from one file type to the other at some point. But if you don’t have the PowerPoint software, you need another way to go between formats. That’s where Soda PDF comes in!

Soda PDF is available on most operating systems and our online solution can be accessed from any mobile device.

Transform PowerPoint documents offline using our fully-featured desktop application. Start automatically with a FREE instant download of Soda PDF Desktop and enjoy a 7-day trial to the entire suite of PDF application tools whenever you create a new account (email registration required).

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The Difference between PDF and PowerPoint
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The Difference between PDF and PowerPoint
Description
This article will tell you the difference between PDF files and PowerPoint file. You'll also learn how to use PDFs to make your presentations accessible and easy to share!
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Soda PDF
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